HISTORY OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND

FROM THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER I UNTIL THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER III

by S.M. Dubnow

FROM THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER I. UNTIL THE DEATH OF
ALEXANDER III.
(1825-1894)

PHILADELPHIA
THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA
5706--1946

Copyright 1918 by
THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE

It was originally proposed to give the history of Russian
Jewry after 1825--the year with which the first volume
concludes--in a
single volume. This, however, would have resulted in
producing a volume
of unwieldy dimensions, entirely out of proportion to the
one preceding
it. It has, therefore, become imperative to divide
Dubnow's work into
three, instead of into two, volumes. The second volume,
which is
herewith offered to the public, treats of the history of
Russian Jewry
from the death of Alexander I. (1825) until the death of
Alexander III.
(1894). The third and concluding volume will deal with
the reign of
Nicholas II., the last of the Romanovs, and will also
contain the
bibliographical apparatus, the maps, the index, and other
supplementary
material. This division will undoubtedly recommend itself
to the reader.
The next volume is partly in type, and will follow as
soon as
circumstances permit.

Of the three reigns described in the present volume, that
of Alexander
III., though by far the briefest, is treated at
considerably greater
length than the others. The reason for it is not far to
seek. The events
which occurred during the fourteen years of his reign
laid their
indelible impress upon Russian Jewry, and they have had a
determining
influence upon the growth and development of American
Israel. The
account of Alexander III.'s reign is introduced in the
Russian original
by a general characterization of the anti-Jewish policies
of Russian
Tzardom. Owing to the rearrangement of the material, to
which reference
was made in the preface to the first volume, this
introduction, which
would have interrupted the flow of the narrative, had to
be omitted. But
a few passages from it, written in the characteristic
style of Mr.
Dubnow, may find a place here:

Russian Tzardom began its consistent role as a
persecutor of the
Eternal People when it received, by way of bequest, the
vast Jewish
population of disintegrated Poland. At the end of the
eighteenth
century, when Western Europe had just begun the
emancipation of the
Jews, the latter were subjected in the East of Europe
to every
possible medieval experiment.... The reign of Alexander
II., who
slightly relieved the civil disfranchisement of the
Jews by
permitting certain categories among them to live
outside the Pale
and by a few other measures, forms a brief interlude in
the Russian
policy of oppression. His tragic death in 1881 marks
the beginning
of a new terrible reaction which has superimposed the
system of
wholesale street pogroms upon the policy of
disfranchisement, and
has again thrown millions of Jews into the dismal abyss
of
medievalism.

Russia created a lurid antithesis to Jewish
emancipation at a time
when the latter was consummated not only in Western
Europe, but also
in the semi-civilized Balkan States.... True, the rise
of Russian
Judaeophobia--the Russian technical term for
Jew-hatred--was
paralleled by the appearance of German anti-Semitism in
which it
found a congenial companion. Yet, the anti-Semitism of
the West was
after all only a weak aftermath of the infantile
disease of
Europe--the medieval Jew-hatred--whereas culturally
retrograde
Russia was still suffering from the same infection in
its acute,
"childish" form. The social and cultural
anti-Semitism of the West
did not undermine the modern foundations of Jewish
civil equality.
But Russian Judaeophobia, more governmental than
social, being fully
in accord with the entire regime of absolutism,
produced a system
aiming not only at the disfranchisement, but also at
the direct
physical annihilation of the Jewish people. The policy
of the
extermination of Judaism was stamped upon the forehead
of Russian
reaction, receiving various colors at various periods,
assuming the
hue now of economic, now of national and religious, now
of
bureaucratic oppression. The year 1881 marks the
starting-point of
this systematic war against the Jews, which has
continued until our
own days, and is bound to reach a crisis upon the
termination of the
great world struggle.

Concerning the transcription of Slavonic names, the
reader is referred
to the explanations given in the preface to the first
volume. The
foot-notes added by the translator have been placed in
square brackets.
The poetic quotations by the author have been reproduced
in English
verse, the translation following both in content and form
the original
languages of the quotations as closely as possible. As in
the case of
the first volume, a number of editorial changes have
become necessary.
The material has been re-arranged and the headings have
been supplied in
accordance with the general plan of the work. A number of
pages have
been added, dealing with the attitude of the American
people and
Government toward the anti-Jewish persecutions in Russia.
These
additions will be found on pp. 292-296, pp. 394-396, and
pp. 408-410. I
am indebted to Dr. Cyrus Adler for his kindness in
reading the proof of
this part of the work.

The dates given in this volume are those of the Russian
calendar, except
for the cases in which the facts relate to happenings
outside of Russia.

As in the first volume, the translator has been greatly
assisted by the
Hon. Mayer Sulzberger, who has read the proofs with his
usual care and
discrimination, and by Professor Alexander Marx, who has
offered a
number of valuable suggestions.

I.F.

NEW YORK, February 25, 1918.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

XIII. THE MILITARY DESPOTISM OF NICHOLAS I.

1. Military Service as a Means of
De-Judaization 13

2. The
Recruiting Ukase of 1827 and Juvenile
Conscription 18

3. Military
Martyrdom
22

4. The Policy
of
Expulsions 30

5. The
Codification of Jewish
Disabilities 34

6. The
Russian Censorship and Conversionist
Endeavors 41

XIV. COMPULSORY ENLIGHTENMENT AND INCREASED OPPRESSION.

1. Enlightenment as a Means of
Assimilation 46

2. Uvarov
and
Lilienthal 50

3. The
Abolition of Jewish Autonomy and Renewed
Persecutions 59

4. Intercession of Western European
Jewry 66

5. The Economic Plight of Russian Jewry and
Agricultural

Experiments 69

6. The
Ritual Murder Trial of
Velizh
72

7. The
Mstislavl
Affair 84

XV. THE JEWS IN THE KINGDOM OF POLAND.

1. Plans of Jewish
Emancipation 88

2.
Political Reaction and Literary
Anti-Semitism 94

3.
Assimilationist Tendencies Among the Jews of
Poland 100

4. The
Jews and the Polish Insurrection of
1831 105

XVI. THE INNER LIFE OF RUSSIAN JEWRY DURING THE PERIOD OF
MILITARY DESPOTISM.

1. The Uncompromising Attitude of
Rabbinism 111

2. The
Stagnation of
Hasidism 116

3. The
Russian Mendelssohn (Isaac Baer
Levinsohn) 125

4. The
Rise of Neo-Hebraic
Culture 132

5. The
Jews and the Russian
People 138

XVII. THE LAST YEARS OF NICHOLAS I.

1. The "Assortment" of the
Jews 140

2.
Compulsory
Assimilation 143

3. New
Conscription
Horrors 145

4. The
Ritual Murder Trial of
Saratov 150

XVIII. THE ERA OF REFORMS UNDER ALEXANDER II.

1. The Abolition of Juvenile
Conscription 154

2.
"Homeopathic" Emancipation and the Policy
of "Fusion" 157

3. The
Extension of the Right of
Residence 161

4.
Further Alleviations and Attempts at
Russification 172

5. The
Jews and the Polish Insurrection of
1863 177

XIX. THE REACTION UNDER ALEXANDER II.

1. Change of Attitude Toward the Jewish
Problem 184

2. The
Informer Jacob
Brafman 187

3. The
Fight Against Jewish
"Separatism" 190

4. The
Drift Toward
Oppression 198

XX. THE INNER LIFE OF RUSSIAN JEWRY DURING THE REIGN OF
ALEXANDER II.

1. The
Russification of the Jewish
Intelligenzia 206

2. The
Society for the Diffusion of
Enlightenment 214

3. The
Jewish
Press 216

4. The
Jews and the Revolutionary
Movement 221

5. The
Neo-Hebraic
Renaissance 224

6. The
Harbinger of Jewish Nationalism (Perez
Smolenskin) 233

7. Jewish
Literature in the Russian
Language
238

XXI. THE ACCESSION OF ALEXANDER III. AND THE INAUGURATION
OF POGROMS.

1. The Triumph
of
Autocracy 243

2. The
Initiation of the Pogrom
Policy 247

3. The
Pogrom at
Kiev 251

4.
Further Outbreaks in South
Russia 256

XXII. THE ANTI-JEWISH POLICIES OF IGNATYEV.

1. The Vacillating Attitude of the
Authorities 259

2. The Pogrom
Panic and the Beginning of the
Exodus 265

3. The
Gubernatorial
Commissions 269

4. The
Spread of
Anti-Semitism 276

5. The
Pogrom at
Warsaw 280

XXIII. NEW MEASURES OF OPPRESSION AND PUBLIC PROTESTS.

1. The Despair of Russian
Jewry 284

2. The
Voice of England and
America 287

3. The Problem of Emigration and the
Pogrom at
Balta 297

4. The
Conference of Jewish Notables at St.
Petersburg 304

XXIV. LEGISLATIVE POGROMS.

1.
The "Temporary Rules" of May 3,
1882 309

2.
Abandonment of the Pogrom
Policy 312

3.
Disabilities and
Emigration 318

XXV. INNER UPHEAVALS.

1.
Disillusionment of the Intelligenzia and the National
Revival
324

2. Pinsker's
"Autoemancipation" 330

3.
Miscarried Religious
Reforms 333

XXVI. INCREASED JEWISH DISABILITIES.

1. The Pahlen Commission and New Schemes
of
Oppression 336

2.
Jewish Disabilities Outside the
Pale 342

3.
Restrictions in Education and in the Legal
Profession 348

4.
Discrimination in Military Service
354

XXVII. RUSSIAN REACTION AND JEWISH EMIGRATION.

1. Aftermath of the Pogrom
Policy 358

2. The
Conclusions of the Pahlen
Commission 362

3. The
Triumph of
Reaction
369

4.
American and Palestinian
Emigration 373

XXVIII. JUDAEOPHOBIA TRIUMPHANT.

1. Intensified
Reaction 378

2.
Continued
Harassing
382

3. The
Guildhall Meeting in
London 388

4. The
Protest of
America 394

XXIX. THE EXPULSION FROM MOSCOW.

1.
Preparing the
Blow 399

2. The
Horrors of
Expulsion 401

3.
Effect of
Protests 407

4.
Pogrom
Interludes
411

XXX. BARON HIRSCH'S EMIGRATION SCHEME AND UNRELIEVED
SUFFERING.

1. Negotiations with the Russian
Government 434

2. The
Jewish Colonisation Association and Collapse of the Argentinian
Scheme
419